December 25, 2025 | 04:43 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - North Korea released new photos Thursday, claiming to show its first nuclear-powered submarine.
According to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Jong Un visited a shipyard to review the construction of what the North describes as an 8,700-ton-class nuclear-propelled submarine. Kim has called the vessel a crucial step in the modernization and nuclear armament of North Korea's navy.
Photos released by KCNA show Kim joined by other officials and his daughter, who many observers believe will succeed her father.
It is not clear what stage the nuclear submarine's construction is at, but the pictures show a largely completed hull, which suggests that many core components are already in place, Moon Keun-sik, a submarine expert at Seoul's Hanyang University, told Agence France-Presse.
At another site, Kim observed a missile test on Wednesday that aimed to assess the nuclear-armed country's strategic technology for developing a new type of high-altitude missile. The test reportedly destroyed airborne targets from a distance of 200 km (120 miles), KCNA said.
Kim's vow to counter South Korea's 'threat'
Kim's pursuit of a nuclear-powered submarine, first outlined in 2021, appears more urgent after South Korea gained U.S. backing for its own program.
Pyongyang would view Seoul developing nuclear submarines as "an offensive act severely violating its security and maritime sovereignty," Kim Jong Un said, according to KCNA.
It was therefore "indispensable" to "accelerate the radical development of the modernization and nuclear weaponization of the naval force," he said.
Only a handful of countries have nuclear-powered submarines, and the U.S. considers its technology among the most sensitive and tightly guarded military secrets.
Kim was quoted as saying the all-out development of nuclear capabilities and modernization of the navy are essential and inevitable, while "the present world is by no means peaceful."
Read: North Korea Denounces Nuclear Agreement Between South Korea and US
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